I would make a spacer ring before I cut any sheet metal. Crutchfield sells a universal set that would work just fine in this application.

I'm wondering if there's a spacer ring on the factory speakers that can be removed. The reason I suspect it is that I can't imagine them investing the reaources to make a specific speaker that only works in this particular car. Seems more likely that they found a cheap source for some mounting spacers and affixed those to some cheap speakers.

Can you post a pic of the back of the stock speaker? Is the mounting bracket removable from the factory speaker?

Ask and ye shall receive.

As you may or may not be able to see, the mounting basket is a part of the basket assembly of the speaker. They can not be separated from each other without completely destroying the stock speakers. Even then, you would be left with, in my opinion, a sub par method of mounting quality speakers. Directly screwed to the metal door skin is a much more solid way of mounting a speaker, and you don't have to worry about a plastic tab breaking due to more bass response of aftermarket speakers vs. stock ones.

I'm wondering if there's a spacer ring on the factory speakers that can be removed. The reason I suspect it is that I can't imagine them investing the reaources to make a specific speaker that only works in this particular car. Seems more likely that they found a cheap source for some mounting spacers and affixed those to some cheap speakers.

Looking closely at the speakers, I do not see a way to separate the speaker from the mounting bracket. As posted already, the bracket is attached to the basket assembly of the speaker, and they are VERY light weight. I've dealt with a LOT of speakers in the past (I sold Car Audio for 3 years) and I have never seen any that are this light or are mounted in this way.

My guess is that these speakers are being used in all the Mitsubishi cars that have base model stereo systems. From a manufacture stand point, it would save them money on the labor it would take to install a speaker because it takes no hardware to install. So, instead of taking 45 seconds per speaker like on a traditional car, it would only take 10 seconds to install and connect the wire. That would save about 2 minutes per car and if you multiply that by 10,000 cars, well, that would be 20,000 minutes saved in labor alone, just on one model of car.

For me, the factory speakers are fine. However, I decided to upgrade I would cut up the original speakers to make a mount base to screw new speakers into. While 91cavgt did a great job, there's no reason someone else has to whack up the door....whack up the cheap speakers. Worse case is that you have to buy new factory speakers if you want to go back to original.

Depending on the speaker you go with, those may or may not work. Here is the reason why. By spacing the speaker out, there may now be enough room for the basket and magnet assembly of the speaker to fit correctly, but there may not be enough room to clear the tweeter since on some speakers they stick out further, and you are already spacing the entire speaker out.

I considered using these brackets, and I even contacted Crutchfield on why only about half of the 6 1/2" speakers were showing to be able to fit. Well, it is because of the tweeter. The speakers I really wanted (Infinity Reference) would not fit due to the tweeter. This is why I decided to go out on my own.